The Art of the Cave: Trump’s Iran MOU Sparks Rare Bipartisan Rebuke
Unfortunately, the resolve he displayed on the battlefield appears to have dissipated at the negotiating table.
Professor Jacobson said it best. After reviewing the text of the Memorandum of Understanding with Iran, signed by President Donald Trump at a Wednesday night dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron, he wrote on X: “Good news is Iran doesn’t need a nuke, it just has to raise gas prices by $1 and we crumble.”
Good news is Iran doesn't need a nuke, it just has to raise gas prices by $1 and we crumble.
— William A. Jacobson (@wajacobson) June 17, 2026
We were told to trust the president. Time and again, supporters assured us that Donald Trump — the man who literally wrote a book on the art of negotiation — would never agree to a bad deal. As rumors about the Memorandum of Understanding’s terms began circulating, skeptics were dismissed, and the reports were written off as Iranian propaganda. Surely, we were told, the IRGC was spreading disinformation to sow division and weaken America’s negotiating position.
Then the text was released on Wednesday afternoon.
What emerged was not the agreement many supporters had anticipated from a president who, just two months earlier, had issued a Churchillian call for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.” Instead, it appeared to be the product of an administration increasingly anxious about rising gasoline prices, political pressure at home, and the economic consequences of a prolonged standoff.
Rather than a demonstration of American strength, the MOU was a concession to a regime that only recently appeared to be near collapse.
I have disagreed with President Trump before, but those disagreements typically involved questions of strategy, messaging, or political judgment. This is different. His decision to effectively capitulate to the IRGC’s demands hit like a thunderbolt. Given the administration’s earlier rhetoric, the abrupt shift was not merely surprising — it was genuinely shocking.
Rumors had circulated for days that an internal struggle was underway within the administration. On one side were officials such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, War Secretary Pete Hegseth, and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who reportedly questioned whether Iran would honor any agreement. On the other hand was Vice President J.D. Vance, who became the deal’s most visible champion.
Judging by the glum look on Rubio’s face as Trump addressed the MOU at the G7 Summit, it looks like the Vance camp won the day.
The X post below provides a broad, but accurate, outline of the MOU’s pros (2) and cons (9):
PROS of the MOU
• Iran pinky promises not to develop a nuclear weapon.
• The Strait of Hormuz reopens, with commercial shipping passing toll free for 60 days.
CONS of the MOU
• Broad sanctions relief for Iran.
• Frozen Iranian assets are unfrozen.
• Hezbollah appears…
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) June 17, 2026
One would expect Democrats to come out swinging against any agreement the Trump administration reached with Iran. What is more noteworthy is the extent to which this deal has drawn criticism from both sides of the aisle. In fact, even before the agreement was made public, a Fox News poll of registered voters released Wednesday found that a clear majority of Americans disapproved of Trump’s handling of the conflict. Conducted June 12–15, the survey found that 65% disapproved, compared with just 35% who approved.
Among Democrats, 73% believe Iran will not honor the agreement or abandon its pursuit of a nuclear weapon, while 26% believe it will. Among Republicans, 53% remain skeptical that Iran will comply and 47% believe it will. Independents, meanwhile, are far more doubtful, with 69% saying Iran will fail to uphold the deal compared with just 29% who believe it will.
Many Republicans reacted to the MOU diplomatically, urging patience and arguing that the agreement should be judged by its results rather than its initial appearance. Some, however, embraced it outright. Fox News’ Greg Gutfeld defended the deal and sharply criticized his colleague Jessica Tarlov, The Five’s sole liberal panelist, for raising concerns about its terms. It pains me to say it, but for perhaps the first time ever, I found myself siding with Tarlov.
Few were surprised when Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA), who recently lost his primary to a Trump-endorsed challenger, denounced the agreement as “a tremendous foreign policy blunder.”
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy BLASTS Trump’s deal with Iran:
“This will go down as a tremendous foreign policy blunder. Iran ends up stronger. Our allies in the region are weaker…It’s a deep mistake” pic.twitter.com/vCsMfg29uG
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) June 18, 2026
But even some of Trump’s closest allies voiced opposition to the framework. In remarks to The Hill, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested that Trump was “not getting good advice from his advisers.” He said, “History teaches that giving billions of dollars to theocratic lunatics who want to murder us is not a good idea. I think the president is receiving some very poor advice on this deal.”
Trump supporters responded to the criticism, emphasizing that the $300 billion does not come from the pockets of American taxpayers. Yet many skeptics see little comfort in that distinction. Money is fungible. By unfreezing such an enormous sum in the name of rebuilding Iran, the agreement may provide the IRGC with precisely the resources it needs to reconstruct its military apparatus and renew its march toward a nuclear weapon.
“Nearly one thousand Americans have been murdered by the Ayatollah and the mullahs… It is not remotely in America’s interest for us to pay to rebuild that capacity that we just took out.” – @tedcruz @realDailyWirehttps://t.co/EDfzRpO9jA
— Benjamin Domenech (@bdomenech) June 17, 2026
As word of the agreement’s contents spread through Capitol Hill earlier this week, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) sounded the alarm over its treatment of Israel. The first point declares:
[T]he immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including in Lebanon, and undertake from now on not to initiate any war or any military operation against each other, and to refrain from the threat or use of force against each other and ensuring the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Lebanon.
During a Monday interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show, Cotton said, “Let me be clear: Israel has been a model partner to the United States in this battle against Iran’s radical regime.”
Let me be clear: Israel has been a model partner to the United States in this battle against Iran’s radical regime. pic.twitter.com/v1dCNGYRaR
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) June 16, 2026
The deal amounts to a wish list for the IRGC, conceding point after point and even permitting the regime to begin charging tolls or transit fees on ships moving through the Strait of Hormuz after the 60-day negotiation period ends.
What’s in it for the U.S.? Lower gasoline prices heading into the midterm elections?
Whatever one’s view of Trump, his decision to strike Iran required genuine political courage. For nearly five decades, presidents of both parties chose caution over confrontation, issuing stern warnings while ultimately avoiding direct action. Trump broke with that pattern. Unfortunately, the resolve he displayed on the battlefield appears to have dissipated at the negotiating table, undermining much of the leverage and credibility his earlier actions had created.
There is no question that the United States succeeded in crippling significant portions of Iran’s military apparatus and degrading much of its defense-industrial base. Those achievements were real and hard-won. Yet by granting Tehran sweeping concessions at the moment it was at its weakest, Trump risks squandering many of those gains and giving the regime an opportunity to rebuild.
As Trump himself has often observed, Iran has never won a war on the battlefield, but it has never lost a negotiation. Judging by the terms of this agreement, that observation remains as true today as it was before the first bomb fell.
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Comments
Looks like I was right all along about Vance’s handprints all over the deal.
Okay you Vance simps – time to downclick.
How long must we endure this train of stupidity. President Trump solved the main issue of the pending Iranian nuclear threat. That was our primary goal In addition, Iran’s military has been severely degraded, as has its economy. It can no longer project terror as it could before and freedom of navigation is being restored. What was the grand solution offered by these critics? Years of war and occupation that no one, including the congressional critics, supported?
How much of the 300 billion will go to rebuilding and how much will go to rearming Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah?
Most, if not all of the money ($300 Billion U.S. taxpayer dollars) earmarked for the rebuilding of Iran’s infrastructure will go to rearming, Hamas, Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations. Life certainly won’t improve for the ordinary Iranian citizen that’s for sure.
Ok, for all you fools out there one more time. None of the money is from the US Taxpayers.
I swear. Trump was called a warmonger among other things and Dems want to impeach him over Iran even go so far as to pass a War Powers Resolution to stop military action. When Trump stops military action he is attacked and accused of surrender and being a TACO. Again. Someone needs to make up their mind.
And I quote from item #6 of the MOU:
USD = United States Dollars. Who besides the United States has $300 billion United States Dollars to give to Iran. Trump can’t obligate any other country to pony up this money and pay it unless they agree to do so. So where’s the money coming from? The United States. Who funds the U.S. government? The taxpayer.
Monies can and will be conditioned on compliance. A perfect outcome would be the collapse of the Iranian terror state. A goal very few, and most especially the political opponents of the president, never supported, although they now crawl out into the sunlight to demand. Not because they have or had a better solution for the Iranian nuclear threat. Just petty simpletons who think, in their TDS rattled minds, that they’ve found some talking points to use against President Trump.
Blah, blah, blah. Yah, Yah, Yah, Simply repeating the Trump administration talking points over and over again isn’t going to make any of it true. They just pushed the nuclear threat down the road a bit. But eventually Iran will get the bomb. If not now, later. But they’ll get it. And with the $300 billion U.S. taxpayer dollars he’s pledged to Iran and along with all their financial assets Trump’s promised to unfreeze they’ll have plenty of money to rebuild the military and military infrastructure.
Stop the conflict, give your enemy billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars, unfreeze your enemies financial assets all so that you can open the Strait of Hormuz for 60 days without tolls because you want gas prices to decrease before the critical 2026 November midterm elections is insanity. Pure insanity. But that’s what Trump has done insane as it is. But there you go and here we are.
Wonder what the ordinary citizens of Iran think of this deal. It certainly won’t benefit them in any manner.
eot
Simply repeating your own talking points over and over again isn’t going to make any of them true either
The truth speaks for itself. And the truth is that Trump has negotiated a deal even worse than Obama’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that does nothing to prevent Iran from eventually gaining nuclear weapons.
Grow up. Trying to frame disagreement with your claim as making someone a ‘Vance simp’ is an idiotic argument. Prove your claim first.
Your comment comes from a person similar to ones that think the Ukraine conflict can stop without talking to Russia. Not a logical position.
Russia is neither Iran nor muslim.
I do find it interesting that the folks already skeptical of Vance seem to be suggesting an implication that Trump is helpless/without agency to reject this course of action and go back to dropping bombs…especially when Trump himself has repeatedly stated in public his reservations about being the instrument that caused widespread death/destruction in Iran among the everyday populace when/if we strike their infrastructure.
Right now given the prior delays and lack of slack in oil supply system that we burned through since the initial cease fire in early Spring, with midterms upcoming, inflation still an issue, affordability the drumbeat of the d/prog….Trump decided to wait and see, probably until after the midterms. The reason is timing. It’s gonna take 2-3 months of sustained 24/7 attacks to compel the surrender of the regime. We had the slack in oil supply to weather that in the Spring. Now we.don’t. If we did it beginning today we’d see oil at $150+ per barrel well before Independence Day.
If we conducted the sort of military strikes Trump himself threatened (but didn’t deliver) ‘Civilization ending’ attacks on dams, power plant, water treatment plants, bridges and so on …the death toll is gonna be very high. IMO those attacks should have been conducted in early Spring after the end of the 1st ceasefire. Yet Trump got cold feet and has admitted as much publicly on more than one occasion. Those sorts of harsh, unforgiving strikes, relentlessly delivered are gonna be necessary to achieve the goal Trump himself set; ‘unconditional surrender’ of the Iranian regime.
This MOU isn’t gonna hold. The Iranian regime is gonna violate it. After midterms maybe before the Trump Admin gonna have to decide to deliver what Trump promised ‘unconditional surrender of Iranian Regime’ or accept something short of that which leaves the Iranian Regime in place to create more mischief later on. Whichever of those options is implemented it will be the President making the decision.
If Im Iranian I’m thinking I didn’t ask for enough. It appears Trump was desperate for a deal, any deal. If I’m Iranian I would have added things like
Israel out of Gaza, Lebanon, Syria. Hell I would have asked for dismantling of the Israeli state. If they had, they might have gotten agreement on it from the US,
If I’m Iranian I now know anytime I want something I can close the Strait. Blackmail obvious works so use it.
Perhaps Iran, thanks to Barry’s help, was actually moments away from producing a working nuke. Imagine the problem Iran COULD have become being armed with nukes.
Thanks to Trump we now don’t have to wonder about how bad a nuclear armed Iran would have been and that ONLY happened because Trump was President.
I would have been very happy if he had just stopped after blowing up all the nuke facilities,
Come on. What did you expect him to do under the circumstances?
He accomplished more in destroying Iran’s military capability in a few short weeks than all of his predecessors combined.
There’s an election coming up and if Trump loses either the House or the Senate, it’s lame duck time. He had a narrow window of time to act before it’s too late for gas prices to go down low enough that they won’t be an issue in November.
Trump is not perfect, nor is he the second coming of Christ. He can’t do anything and everything he wants. IOW, he’s not a king.
Be realistic people.
Let me ask you this question. Why did he start up with Iran when he did? Couldn’t he have waited until after midterms, Also even if he started up with Iran he could have limited things to just their nuke program but he didn’t. Why not attack their nuke program and widen the engagement if that is what he desired after midterms?
Rs must listen to the generals instead of the pundits.
I can only surmise that the intelligence that he had indicated that swift action was necessary. We can’t and won’t know that for sure but Trump’s overall record is one of non-military action.
As far as waiting until after the midterms, we have no idea what the R/D split will be and he’d be utterly hamstrung if the D’s hold a majority in either chamber.
The democrats would gleefully object to any response to a nuclear strike on American soil, even if the attack was on a deep blue city such as NYC.
His record was one of non-military action until Venezuela.
That may be but did he have to fawn over the regime to such a degree in his comments? And say such horrible things about Israel that will be hard to walk back? I’m beyond believing this is 5D chess in action. And if saying all those things was necessary to get the regime to agree, he is just telegraphing what a failure the operation was
The fact that he’s a blowhard from Queens and therefore acts like one surprises you?
Look, as far as I am concerned, he’s racked up a surprisingly large number of diplomatic successes that none of his predecessors even got close to.
I am therefore willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Have you ever noticed over his 2 terms that he always does that with people he is trying to make a deal with? Remember little rocket man in N.K?
The issue is that the accomplishments of those first few weeks have more than likely become meaningless. With the Iranian regime allowed to remain in power, it is only a matter of time before the damage is repaired and all its efforts to destroy those it hates resume.
There never should have been a ceasefire. The job should have been finished, and the mullahs fully removed from power.
And the agreement says no charge for ships crossing the strait for 60 days, implying that after that charging a toll to cross International waters is OK? Meanwhile, the regime has already stated that it will be charging “processing fees” immediately. Sounds like a used car dealer. But what is Trump going to do if they demand payment now? If he does nothing, it proves that this MOU is useless and pointless
I’m not sure wha the problem is. Trump has Iran committed to no Nukes, open shipping, and further negotiations for 60 days. This will likely kick the issue past mid-terms. Iran will play their usual games and Trump will start “bridges and power plants” and because Iran played games with the “deal” more infrastructure will go on the target list. IMO, Trump has them on a very short leash and fall back to usual behavior will not end well.
So let me get this straight.
They criticize him for going to war and the dems plus some republicans didn’t want to fund this offensive, now they criticize him for stopping the offensive and signing a deal with them.
Gtfo with this crap.
In the end he’s strengthened the Iranian regime politically.
Oh please. Most of the senior leadership is dead. Their military is in shambles. You can claim that Trump didn’t finish the job, fine, but saying that the regime is stronger politically is asinine.
Of their military their navy and their nuke program are in shambles. I’m not sure of their air force. They mostly kept in protected and out of the way. They still have a lot of missiles and drones with the capacity to build more. The ground troops remain unaffected.
As to leadership there were a lot of deaths but they were replaced and the revolutionary guard may not have more control than the mullahs. The regime also killed 50k+ civilians so that may actually have more political control over the country.
Their air force is *gone*. Beyond gone. There wasn’t much left after Israel got done with them a while back. No, they weren’t mostly kept protected. They don’t have a lot of missiles. Their launches started strong but tapered off to a trickle by the end. They have little ability to manufacture more. The only real strength they had left were in drones, and those were more of a threat than a reality. That’s what the closing of the straight was… a threat, not a real deployment of force. But it was an effective threat.
Rulers can’t simply be swapped out like light bulbs. Most of the senior leadership was taken out early, and new people have to secure power. If anything the attacks against the rulers were TOO effective, resulting in no one who had the authority to negotiate.
According to various sources they do have missiles and drones underground. Some of the sites are buried under rubble. Even Trump at the beginning of June said they had 20% of pre-war numbers left.
I like the image of swapping out rulers like light bulbs. Anyways there seemed to be in fighting between the politicians, the mullahs, and the revolutionary guard which caused some of the issues. The reason why they have political power is that they got rid of a lot of dissidents who unfortunately stuck their noses up. There may not be a political alternative at least inside the country. I don’t know how much clout the shah’s son has.
Not really. The mad mullah’s are all dead. Will the IRGC be easier to deal with? IDK. It seems to me that the conflicting statements out of Iran show a fractured leadership with multiple factions striving for power. What Trump has done politically is not strengthen the Iranian regime, he has unified the Middle Eastern Countries opposition to Iran and brought them all closer to Israel further isolating Tehran. The Saudi-Israel pipeline is one example.
I don’t think a lot of mullahs were killed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Iranian_officials_killed_during_the_2026_Iran_war
A little hard for me to tell. A lot of senior military were killed,
When you’re over extended and can’t pay cash for a new car, you buy a crappy beater that gets the job done for the short term rather than paying crappy interest on a 10 year car loan. Then you put your ducks in a row and get want you want later on. I’m not talking about a deal, I’m talking about regime change and purging of major factions in Iran’s military.
I don’t KNOW that this will happen, but I’m saying this is what SHOULD happen and it is America first.
I want regime change in Iran. I won’t go into a 10 year economic stalemate with thugs living in bunkers with nothing else to do but take pot shots at shipping lanes at the cost of the global economy and the US economy to get this. The current Iranian regime is willing to murder their own people, do you think they give a fig about sanctions and blockades? That strategy has US inflation staying high, the GOP losing at mid-terms and President Newsom in the Oval office in 2028. In the end, they would wait Trump out and they knew it.
I have immense respect for Israel. They brought pager bombs to the party for FFS. So tell me how they have not been planning for kinetic action on the ground to effect regime change? How have they not been getting arms caches set up? How have they not been training Iranians to take back their country? Sort of a big blind spot. Were they thinking the US would put boots on the ground because Bibi picks up the phone? Not going to happen.
I really despise the antisemitism and blood thirsty hate Iran has for Israel. As such, we have done them a tremendous solid up to this point and I’m going to say Trump is making the right call in taking the beater to drive in the short term rather than a 10 year car loan.
We all know damn well that they will go back to pursuing a nuke program. So if behind the scenes, the Green Beret sorts of the world don’t go in and get the Iranian locals ready to kill the people who need killing and effect a new regime mentality that is not hell bent on wrecking the world, that’s sort of on Israel at this point, not me as an American.
If they want nukes so bad, let’s give them some.
Many of the critics have been GOP establishment types who are true believers in Nation building. They simply ignore the reality of Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
I believe that the more important reason for the Establishment types is that they simply do not wish to govern. They and their donors would prefer to be the minority party and howl in fake outrage at the Democrats. In reality they have no desire to ever govern on the policies they campaign on.
I don’t know why anyone is feeling either way about this “deal”, never in history has Iran honored a deal they have made. All they have ever done is use the time to build up strength and then do the same thing they always have.
I am one of the ones who is of the opinion that the “deal” was pointless and we should just take them over.
Ahem? Take them over? How many lives and billions of dollars were spent in Afghanistan to wind up with… well, not the same Taliban in charge. A fairly muted and respectful bunch when compared to the frothing loons who were in charge before. A degree of political change, a nudge on the global thermostat. And Iran is a hundred times more difficult, with every bloody action involved in ‘take them over’ costing American lives and alienating the rest of the Middle East. We’re not going to see the Shah returning to the gleeful songs of his people, and the bloodthirsty maniacs dealt with by an uprising of Persians. We had two goals with this action. 1) prevent mushroom clouds over Israel and other Middle Eastern countries, or European capitals, or even the US. 2) Suppression of petrodollars flowing into terrorist hands, which is going to be the *far* more difficult task since even our own Democrats have been shoveling taxpayer cash into their bloodstained hands.
This is progress. That’s rare in the Middle East. Stop acting like it’s a horrible failure, worse than ever before, oh woe is me.
Funny, I didn’t say it was a horrible failure. I simply stated the fact that Iran has never in the past 50 years actually honored any agreement they have made.
So why make one. As far as the agreement itself, it’s a compromise, you never get it all your way. The saying that a good compromise means that no one is happy with the deal is just a simple fact.
As for how you take them over, I will not go into that in these comments other than to say you do what is necessary. Something we stopped doing around the Vietnam era, when politics became more important on the battlefield than tactics and strategy.
F88k me there are some whiney little bitches about today 🤣
Right, many of you need to get over yourselves and let this play out 🙄
Right now Iran will NEVER become a nuclear power and for that you have Trump to thank. That is worth blowing the f88k out of Iran, dismantling its ability to fund its proxies around the world and generally making the world a safer place.
Sure, be a little bitch all you want but Iran will not get the bomb.
That was pretty much determined by the first bombing campaign. Per FT, Trump has already OK’d 6 billion release of funds held by Qatar. Wanna bet it won’t go to feed the poor?
In this part- I think you have to keep an open mind. Israel killed a lot of people who needed killing. That is part of why the negotiations were so fractured and chaotic. I do think if we are not careful the elements that still need killing will get to the cash coming in.
People who don’t need to be killed may be stepping up to the plate and that may be where the money is going. If you give the guys who want to dismantle and kill the IRGC off the guns and money to make that happen, the Iranians who don’t live to be world wreckers may take it in the right direction.
Left alone- that thugs will gain control and they will go back to proxy terror and a nuke program.
oh and bet your ass they will try and light us up just before midterms… so I expect this to be a spicy summer.
The more I read about this deal, the less it seems like a concession.
Obama provided billions from the US treasury to slow down development of a nuclear weapon. Trump destroyed Iran’s nuclear weapons program. If Iran provides guarantees that it has not restarted its nuclear program, then it gets sanctions relief.
The difference in the two deals is that Obama bribed the Iranians; Trump offered a carrot backed up by an enormous club.
Everyone not happy with the MOU, what did you expect? Are you willing to put boots on the ground? All of you act like you could have done better, when the truth is Trump only wanted to stop the nukes, The rest does not matter. He went in almost alone, without the support of 1/2 the country and 3/4 of the world nations. He had active dissenting elected officials all over the world.
If he achieved his primary objective to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons then its a win. Quite frankly the rest does not matter.
Yup. The instant gratification crowd is not happy. What the heck did they expect? An overnight wave of a fairy wand and all would be well? The MOU is a work in progress; Trump made that clear but the naysayers are too busy bitching to pay attention. The pushback from all sides will ensure that the plan fails, and then the big blame game will go into overdrive. This is exactly what the Trump haters want. Trump most likely has anticipated this and will deal with it as he sees fit.
venus flytrap